


One of a Kind

by HolleringHawk65



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Green Lantern - All Media Types, Justice League - All Media Types
Genre: Bruce is emotionally stunted, Kidnapping, M/M, Mild torture, Potential OOCness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-21
Updated: 2015-08-21
Packaged: 2018-04-16 09:22:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4620051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HolleringHawk65/pseuds/HolleringHawk65
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Joker isn't afraid of anything, but neither is Hal. The villain wants to be one of a kind and, well, Barry gets in the way by telling Bruce that Hal is missing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One of a Kind

**Author's Note:**

> This is probably, sorry! This was just an idea that I had and yeah. Enjoy~

Hal Jordan was the man without fear.

This was something that the entire Justice League was aware of.

This was something that the Joker had only found out recently.

 _This_ was something that he could not allow to continue.

He was without fear himself--something that irked Scarecrow to no end. He did, occasionally, worry that Bats was ignoring him, but that was _different_.

Sort of. Maybe.

He had been waiting for the pilot to make an appearance in Gotham, and here he was, buying flowers on his way to surprise _Bruce Wayne_.

Honestly, the nerve of this Californian hot shot.

 _Proceed with caution,_ he told himself as he stepped out of the shadows. Hal was completely unsuspecting. Sure, he knew that Gotham was dangerous, but he knew that he was in the Red Hood's territory and that he didn't really take shit from any of the notorious criminals.

The Joker hadn't been making a habit of coming around here, and he didn't plan to. This was a one time deal, just. to put. hot shot. in. his. _place_.

There wasn't any chance for Hal to react before the Joker had him on his back, had already pulled _the_ ring off of his fingers, laughing at him before placing a rag on his face.

_... In blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight..._

* * *

 

"Have you heard from H-Green Lantern?" Barry asked Bruce. "He hasn't been answering any of my texts."

“No, why would I have?” He didn’t even turn around from looking at the Watchtower’s monitors.

Barry looked around before sitting down next to Bruce. “Look, I know that you and Hal are in a relationship in real life. He is my best friend, you know.”

“Your point? We spend quite a bit of time apart--really, it’s more like... ”

“Yeah right, friends with benefit, Hal’s given me the whole deal before. But the last I heard from him, he was going to Gotham to surprise you--he even had it all worked out with Dick with shifts and everything. And you’re telling me that he never showed up? Damn it.”

“Are you sure that he wasn’t called away on interplanetary business last minute?”

“I’m sure. He called me when he landed and asked me what kind of _flowers_ I thought you would like. He was in Gotham, and he might still be. All I know is that something is very, very wrong!”

Barry noticed that as he had been talking, Bruce switched some of the monitors to footage from the previous night in Gotham. “He’ll turn up.”

* * *

 

The Joker threw a bucket of cold water onto Hal, who was hanging off of the floor by ropes.

“Wakey wakey, darling,” the villain.

Hal started struggling instantly. “You’re not going to get away with this!”

He laughed, tilting his head back and exposing his pale throat. “Considering that the Justice League hasn’t found you yet, I considered this a win.”

_It couldn’t have been that long._

“You can’t mess with _me_ , Joker! I know that my team is going to come for me!”

The Joker hummed. "We'll see."

* * *

 

"What did you want to tell me?" Batgirl asked as she landed on the roof.

Jason turned around from taking a smoke, hood off but still wearing a domino mask. "So I was going through some video footage, thought that you could tell B or whoever might care."

"What is it?"

"I saw Hal get grabbed. Couldn't see who took him, but something did. I doubt that he's still in my turf but," he reached into his pocket and pulled out a disc. "I'll keep an eye out for anything else."

She put the disc into her utility belt. "Thanks, Jason."

 _Wanna hang out sometime? Grab dinner and a movie? Gotham will still be standing after a night._ "Anything for you, Barbie," he whispered, but she was already gone.

* * *

 

Harley didn't know what to say when she walked into the Joker's current warehouse and saw Hal Jordan strung up. He was soaking wet, stripped down to his boxers (an uncommon courtesy, actually) and looked relatively unharmed except for a cut in the right of his head.

She stood in front of him and sighed."So. Man without fear, eh?"

Hal looked up at her. "That's what they call me."

She sat down in front of him, cross legged. "I used to be a doctor, you know. Pretty good at listening, I guess."

"What, you're not worried about the Joker coming in here and killing you for talking to me?"

"Nah. He's tried to kill me before but..." She shrugged. "Bats have saved me before. They're pretty nice like that."

He shivered from the cold air and his bare skin. She wished that there was something she could do, because sometimes the joke really does go too far but... This was a new warehouse, nothing in it except some wrappers from Mcdonald's and some leftover ketchup packets.

She tapped her fingers on her thigh as she looked at him. "So. You and Bats?"

"How'd you know?"

"Oh, Mr. Jay gets to all of you guys at some point or another. Tells people it's cuz he craves his attention, that he gets _jealous_. Truth is, he gets scared that Bats might actually go away--it's his only fear. Imagine how he felt when he found out that he was with 'the Man Without Fear'... Someone he couldn't intimidate, couldn't get rid of with some of Scarecrow's fear gas. It wasn't pretty."

"How did you even know that I'm the Green Lantern?"

She shrugged. "I guess Mr. J got into Bats's files? He doesn't tell me everything."

He sighed before testing the rope again--he wasn't getting out of here anytime soon. "Why are you here, Harley?"

"Because I feel bad for you. People have tried to use me against Mr. J and Ivy but they don't care. And I still go back to them." She shrugged. "And I don't meant to freak you out by saying that. I'm sure Bats is putting the fear of God into every criminal in town right about now."

He didn't say anything to that. Only Barry had known that he was coming here, not Bruce. Bruce would probably leave him here, anyway, just to teach him a lesson.

"If you feel so bad for me, you could let me down. Or get me my ring. Come on Harley, I know that you're a good person."

She ran her fingers along the rope, staying quiet as she did so. "Ya think?"

He nodded. "I get you. I get loving the thrill that comes with making chaos, can remember feeling guilty afterwards, and I know you do too because you're here instead of with the Joker. You care."

They'd met each other's eyes. "I don't always feel guilty, Hal. I do feel bad for you though, because Bats is emotionally crippled. Because he doesn't understand what a real relationship is like. Even after the second Robin died, he let Mr. J walk around. There's something wrong about that." She sighed, stepping back. "I feel bad for you because I at least know where I stand with Mr. J. Do you know where you stand with Bats?"

He stared at her as she stood there for another moment before turning around and walking away.

Did he?

* * *

 

"Look, it could have been anyone who took GL. Are you sure that it was the Joker?" Diana asked Bruce in the Javelin.

"I can't think of anyone else who would do that in Jason's territory, who would think to pull off the ring. Can you? Maybe it's one of Hal's enemies-- _maybe_. But I doubt that someone like that could come to Earth, let alone Gotham, without us knowing."

He had a point there. "Did you tell Barry? He's been worried sick."

"He's meeting us there."

"If you keep such good tabs on everything coming in and out of Gotham, how did not know Hal was in Gotham?"

He fell silent. "I knew he was there. Didn't know what for though--figured that he was-"

"Meeting up with someone not you because the two of you didn't have anything planned? I know how you work, Bruce. You hate spontaneous, so you assumed the worst of Hal."

His hands tightened on the wheel. "And now the Joker has him."

Diana squeezed his shoulder. "Not for much longer."

* * *

 

His boxers were gone.

He was still tied up, but on the floor now.

The Joker laughed as he poured another bucket of ice cold water onto him. "I love seeing you shake. Maybe it'll be from _fear_ one day!"

"I am afraid of nothing," Hal gritted out. He _was_ shivering from the cold, would consider fighting Hawkgirl single handedly for clothes or a blanket--but that wasn't really an option right now.

"We'll see."

The Joker walked out of the room, flipping all the lights out as he went.

_What? Does he think that I'm going to be afraid of the dark?_

_This is ridiculous._

* * *

 

It wasn't hard to find the Joker. Probably because Harley Quinn was loitering out in front of a warehouse.

"Glad you decided to show up," she told them as the three approached. Bruce, personally, didn't like using force on her if she wasn't up to anything.

He felt sorry for her, to be honest. Being in love with a mad man--he was worried that his partners had felt like that, that they sympathized with her.

"Mr. J has the ring, just to let you know. Can't figure out how to use it, but that's probably the best for Gotham, ya know?" She blew a bubble before popping it. "He's a good guy, Bats. Try not to fuck it up." She blew another bubble before winking at Diana and walking away from the warehouse.

Bruce sighed before turning to Diana and Barry. "Wonder Woman, we'll go in first and draw their attention. Barry, you get the ring from the Joker while I grab Lantern. In and out, okay?"

* * *

 

Hal woke up to the sound of gun fire. If there was one good thing about this, at least he was kind of catching up on his sleep.

He stared in the direction of the door, just waiting. When he heard it open--the slightest of creeks--and saw the massive black shadow, he knew that rational people would be scared.

But he _knew_.

He heard the cape unclick from the Batsuit and a second later, Bruce helped him up, wrapped him in the warm, thick material. It smelled like Gotham smoke and Bruce's chairs, because he always has a chair in each place, and they end up smelling like him...

"I'm going to take you to the Batcave now, alright?" And it wasn't Batman's voice, but Bruce's, and it was lulling him back to sleep...

"C'mon Hal, just stay awake."

He tried. Tried so hard... But it was just... Just one more thing to add to the list of "Failures to Batman."

* * *

 

Bruce had lied.

Or maybe Hal had just been that gone when he, undoubtedly, ran check up tests on him in the Batcave, he had slept right through them.

He was currently under a mass of blankets, in a bed he recognized as Bruce's, with the fire crackling in the background. It took him another moment to realize that he was in flannel pajamas much bigger than his regular size, and that warm, familiar, arms were wrapped around him, a chest against his back, and warm breath on his neck.

"This wasn't how I imagined spending my time with you this weekend."

Bruce held him closer. "I made it a week. Called Carol, told her what had happened." His voice was tired, _sleep deprived_ , making him wonder what had been going on, how long he'd been up.

Hal turned around. Over Bruce's shoulder, he saw the glow of his ring. It comforted him that they had recovered it, though he hoped that they had bleached it after the Joker had touched it. He couldn't fathom what kind of disease-- _strain of rabies_ \--the villain had been carrying.

"Where do we stand?" he asked as Bruce's eyes were forcing themselves to open, the electric blue almost glowing in light of the fire.

"Hm? Can this wait until-"

"No. Where do we stand? Are we friends with benefits? An unofficial item? Dating? You have to tell me, Bruce. Do you even know?"

"Hal," he started, bringing up a hand to rest on his cheek. "I love you. It hurts so much that I looked for any excuse to dismiss you and," Bruce took a deep breath, "if it weren't for Barry, who knows how long it would've taken me to notice."

He didn't say anything for a moment, just slid his own arms around Bruce. "I get it. I just... Wanted to surprise you, like they do in the movies. Wanted to make you smile or, better yet, laugh by getting you flowers."

"Barry told me," Bruce pressed a kiss to his forehead, "I appreciate the gesture." He wasn't going to ask what Hal had been doing in Jason's territory, wasn't going to criticize that, not when he was safe in his arms. "When I saw you in there, I thought that... And how that meant that I would have failed you so badly. That scared me, because of how I feel about you, and..."

“And I’m okay,” he reminded him. “I’m not even cold anymore.”

They were silent, and Hal thought that Bruce might have fallen asleep, but then his hold tightened and he pressed closer to Hal, as if he wanted to fuse together with him.

Hal ran a hand through Bruce’s hair before kissing his cheek. “I love you, too.”


End file.
